Musical Archaeology - Rhapsody Playlists ('n' More)

This site is managed with GVIM, Filezilla and PHP, yeah I code my own stuff..

Due to the nature of this blog, archives have to be provided in seperate locations, to get back to the most recent blog, simply click on the default link. The site will always link to the most recent one.

Blog Archives: [Current, 2007], [2006], [2005].

For You Lazy YouTubers: YouTubeify It Bookmarklet + FREEDB = Easy YouTube music searches.
For Those Who Haven't Patience To Use YouTube: CHANN3L Z - What If YouTube was TV. (NEW!!!, 2/07) Quicktime (30MB), YouTube One and Two, Tutes.
Cheapest way to podify yourself: Buy this mp3 player (I own two of these with 1 gig SD cards ) (--> DEMOSTRATION VIDEO)
Cheapest way to listen to audio:Dell A215, Get Some Clip On Headphones, Sound Blaster Live!
Best way to veggitate:

www.chann3lz.com Youtube + Me = Chann3lz, a completely random music video playing jukebox of content, managed by the audience, no registration necessary, all mechanism, no policy.. www.youtube.com Videos, Videos, Videos and more Videos, and you don't have to download anything, you don't even really need a Video Codec. It's all FLASH!! Tubeify Everyhit Take YouTube, Combine with Everyhit.com, What Do you get? iTunes How-to-install iTunes (v) here is a downloadable tutorial (v) if you have a slow line. RSS NETCASTS (Hint: Drag&Drop These Links onto iTunes "Podcasts"): Wikipedia Synthesized Mind "Fart" Synthesized (Monthly) Musical Archeology Synthesized Wikipedia Turkeys Synthesized If you want your own netcast (netcast = podcast, Apple is trademarking podcast), but are not sure how to set one up, get my drop-it-in netcast generator script. Script is provided as-is, use at your own risk, thus I'm not liable if somehow you don't get it to work or it eats your cattle and causes you to lose a bunch of money. My tutorials require Real Video not because I'm a Real-Rhapsody fan, but because RealVideo happens to be the best format for low-bandwidth tutorials

Rhapsify Everyhit.com looks for albums of a date range precise to a month, providing links to rhapsody-online (and YouTube).
YouTubeify Everyhit.com is much better for tracking down music videos to precise songs on "YouTube.com".

BEST WAY TO PERUSE YOUTUBIFIED LINKS
1. go to url "about:config" in address bar of firefox browser.
2. toggle 'browser.tabs.showSingleWindowModePrefs' to true (pre 1.5; post v1.5, search Advanced Options )
3. then middle mouse click on each youtubified search link
4. click on the videos, bookmark, make into playlists, enjoy..

How Fast Is Your, Connection, Really!! a script I wrote that computes data connection uproute/downroute rates (here is mine, Comcast).

Where to Find Quicktime Pro Forums (and many disgruntled owners): Quicktime for Windows Forum.

Best way to secure your computer: Grisoft AVG (free), ZoneAlarm (free*!) {flash demo}, TCPView (free) {for semi-advanced users}.
Best way to discover music besides this one: Coverville.com
Best way to access your computer remotely: VNC, in particular TightVNC (stay away from www.gotomypc.com)
Best way to obtain/distribute huge files (bit-torrent clients): Azureus
Best way to make backups: Knoppix (Linux/DVD*R), Audiograbber (CD2mp3), DVD Shrink (FreeDVDBackup)
Free Knowledge: UC Berkeley Courses (no credit)

Interesting netcasts for programmers: Software Engineering Radio
How to painlessly publish/purchase a book: LULU.COM
Best of the Best (non-obnoxious): 46 freeware utils
Best webhosting: Geocities (free, commercially scaleable), phpwebhosting (commercial with ssh/sftp-access), Find Hosting.
Best information resources: Google (no brainer), Wikipedia (def)
Best place to lust for synthesizers: Vintage Synth Explorer
Best way to convert wikipedia articles to sound TextAloud, the Eddie voice, and my custom UserTranslations.chl file (put in install directory). TA also comes with a firefox/IE plugin that will read web pages for you, making it easier.. I use it when I hate reading web pages..

Alternative Content Discovery: Blogdigger, WebJay
Trouble Viewing Videos? You need some Codecs: Matroska Pack (good), free-codecs (works, but it may have a Trojan)
Need to convert Media format X to media format Y? Use Mediacoder its a freeware media swiss army knife, that is supposedly open source (its on sourceforge, huh?).
Need to convert video formats that Mediacoder doesn't? Use AVS Convert , I own a copy myself, and it lets me do stuff with Quicktimes and WMV's that neither Microsoft nor Apple will permit me (note the site looks kinda cheap, but the program isn't.
My most favorite rhapsody playlist: Smooth And Punchy Playlist
My most favorite bands (and most played): Level 42 (r), Nik Kershaw, Cock Robin, Double (not played, on my wishlist), etc.
My most favorite years (musically):1978 (r), pretty much any year from 1976 to 1989
My most favorite movie (note: works, and could be made on a low budget):Brainstorm
Most Favorite Music Video (5/12/07):Brinsley Schwarz - Surrender to The Rhythm..

Why is this page so huge: Google can cache it all, audience is broadband users, I use less than 50% of my quota per month.
Your most favorite rhapsody playlist: The Brian Eno Playlist
Big application wish: SOUNDBLASTER LIVE! PRESET EXPORT, so I can share with you some of my killer rooms.

Cool way other than Chann3lz for listening to audio.

Say No To Software Patents
Thanks to: JESUS (CHRIST) *, Richard Stallman (AVI, RM, RM2-SP), and the respective creators of these packages and places.

Bag 'O' Tricks Directory lists tips/tricks and reminders and other stuff I would love to clog my header with.

* - Wikipedia is edited by anarchy, don't use for christian inspiration. Christian Bahai is a oxymoron BTW.
*! - I use Zonealarm Pro, which is what that flash demo is demonstrating, ZoneAlarm costs about fifty dollars a
year with updates, but is well worth it, it also comes with spyware weeding software, so there is no need for an application like "Ad-Aware",
"Spybot Search & Destroy" or "Spyware Doctor".

Companies/Organizations I Currently Consider Evil or Stupid:
Why?: Claims to save time and accelerate processing but Wastes Hours of Time Submitting Rebate Offers no Recourse if Rebate Fails!! DELIBERATE THIEVES

All Rhapsody Playlists found in this page (and some not).. All Rhapsody Playlists YouTubeified

Tip Jar ->

or my Amazon Wish List

-[  Mind 'Fart' Blog (September 2005) ]

Web www.bl3nder.com

[ Index ][Top] blog:[Current,07][2006][2005] [YouTube-ified Playlists]

(9/28/05 3:43 PM): Took the less hypochondriacical approach today and decided to do an install like a complete novice, however I gave up the router as it seems after a reset I can't get into my router to adjust the firewall, so I'm beginning to suspect that someone got access to the router and did a firmware upgrade of say a small linux system or something of the sort. So I bypassed it today.. We'll see how it works.

(9/28/05 2:29 AM): How idiot windows users effect changes in Windows XP that are contrary to international standards.. This is proof of Bill Gates utter stupidity..Note, he just owns the company he didn't make XP, but you can imagine what changes make there way into Windows when his relatives complain.

Anyhow, in this case, the change was whether or not to allow login/password storage in a url, this is a nice feature if you are a web developer and want to use IE, but real web developers use firefox.. Maybe microsoft knows this, that's why they made this change?

(9/28/05 2:06 AM): Now you can tell I don't have a real job.. This is like the fifth time I've installed Windows XP.. I found another site (note this page is about the diff between Home and Pro, RAID!!!) that is quite useful, and quite skeptical of Microsoft, its good to know there is at least another one of us in the world. This resource tells you how to install windows and remove the _________ that Microsoft tries stuff down your throat. Another good thing about this site is it tells you the difference between Windows XP Home and Windows XP Pro.. If this install fails, I'm going to switch to Pro, it seems to be pretty fantastic.. I don't know why I amy not using Pro right now, but as you can see Pro is 2000.. Bill Gates should be ran out of town on a rail, to bad we got him after marriage, it would have been more effective.. Another thing about this site is it says Messenger can't really be deinstalled, but I guess this is pre-XP2.. I've determined its impossible to download a install disk of XP2, which really sucks.. I have to be connected to the net, to use the installer, what if the hackers break in while I'm installing SP2? Microsoft are royal jerks..

(9/27/05 9:48 PM): Boot Floppy Duh Wot Is Dat? I have two hard drives, and I think C: is my secondary drive, I'm trying to avoid opening my machine to fix the problem of which disk is the primary drive, because as it stands I have two of them.. I think what is happening is the system is booting on the secondary boot drive, and is then executing the boot.ini for windows on that drive.. If that MBR has a virus in it, it still has it.. I have to fix that ASAP.. Anyhow, besides that, if I had only one hard disk, it would be just a matter of having a boot floppy, which I found out is extremely easy to create.. Check Microsoft's site about this, a secondary source for advice I found a UK site..

Anyhow, at least I'm learning stuff..

(9/27/05 7:32 PM): Okay I've either got a hacker hacking my machine or a real devoted fan, or I'm just manipulating my machine each time so it can't work.. In any case, I'm having to format and reinstall my Operating System again.. I was thinking of a way to eliminate hackers.. This is how ol' Bill or someone could do it.. Two ideas.. Install two machines on a network, one a real XP machine the other a decoy.. Compare decoy to real, determine like changes, store changed bits to a hard drive for later reverting..

Another idea, would be to require a Public Key handshake with every initial server connect, just for host validation, and allow only hosts through the Windows firewall that have been initially contacted by your computer, then keep a log of all these hosts with a set of permissions (like which ports they can connect to), and make the protocol so simple that it gives little room for exploitation of vulnerabilities in the protocol.

Of course, if the user wanted to run a server, their server would have to open a public port, but all requesting clients would have to perform a public key encryption handshake with the server to initiate a connection with it, its still the same kind of relationship, just tighter.. This would eliminate a good bit of the hacking possible with windows.. How can a hacker exploit a vulnerability if their transactions don't involve a cookie that the host had sent it before it contacted the host.. And the process is so simple it could be standardized and distributed and used on any configuration..

(9/27/05 4:58 PM): Oh yeah, I think the best Rhapsody Playlist I have is the Smooth and Punchy playlist (r). I had to change a song on it, Joe Jackson removed his "Body And Soul" album from Rhapsody, so I had to obtain "You can't Get What You Want" from one of his "Hits" albums.. I think this playlist, anyhow, is the best playlist I have, at least the one I like.. But according to my stats, the most popular playlist I have is like "ELO.rpl (r)".. Everyone loves that one..

Have to get back to work..

(9/27/05 4:25 PM): Using Regmon.exe from the tcpview site, I was able to determine which processes were modifying my registry, and determined that taskpanel was peridiocally causing buffer overflows, something I was miscalculating as a hack attack.. I learned that in zonealarm, in the firewall set of tabs, there is an expert tab where you can setup firewall rules. I have a rule that keeps anyone from the Internet from talking to ports 1025, 135, 445, 4800, and ports like that..

Maybe I should highlight stuff that is music oriented, I'm thinking about splitting off this blog.. I had a look at word press and determined that it seems okay, its a small footprint, but I've noticed as with lots of php based blog apps that there is little or no OOP design, its purely functional and doesn't control global scope very well. I think this would be a problem with any PHP application, but Wordpress would be easier to fix than some larger apps I've seen, Moveable Type is huge, for instance.. If there is too much code I tend not to trut the PHP.. Its easy to tell how well designed it is by running it through a program like Enterprise Architect to see the class relationships (if there are any).. Its also an easy way to distinguish amatuer stuff from expert coders.. Low-level hackers don't write readible code, but there is a question of maintainability with functional code that seperates data from code strictly. PHP needs a VM, that's what parrot is for Perl. Its the one advantage that Java has.. Java's servlets run like mini webservers that are individually threaded for specific tasks, whereas with Apache+PHP a whole seperate process has to be forked to handle incoming requests.. Apache+PHP is fast, but once you have thousands of people hitting the site, the Java server can distribute the servlets (theoretically) over several servers, not only that but it can access enterprise content (create for enterprises that need web integration). Java is great for integration but its terrible for deployability.. That's why people use PHP, its very very very easy to deploy, you don't have to recompile it everytime you wish to deploy it.. Its also not insanely Object Oriented, it doesn't have to use OOP, it can be somewhere between C++ and C in style. That hackability, is what attracts many more coders. Also PHP is consistent, Java lacks some consistency, as Sun is ever deprecating whole arms of the class hiearchy (for what reason, I have no clue). This difference and lack of value-added-benefit is probably why Sun(w) _ _ purhcased the Zend(w) _ _ group, the guys who created PHP. As for python and PErl, I wouldn't know, I haven't had much luck doing web development with either of them.. Since PHP is always interpretive and can't be compiled, its impossible to really sell PHP code, its Open Source by nature.. The purpose for using Perl or Python is not just for the level of control, but you can compile python and perl, just as you can compile Java, therefore you can sell deliverables. That's why open source web apps tend to be PHP and closed source apps tend to either be Microsoft, Java-based, python or perl. Commercial developers still yet have to figure out a way to sell PHP, unless selling a service contract with the distribution of the source (which is probably the better way to work it).

Note, Java, Perl, Python are all interpretive languages or machine emulators, meaning that compiling the code really doesn't get you anywhere.. Compiled software transforms into native assembly code for the CPU, such as with C,C++,Pascal and such. Anyhow, you guys knwo this.. I just am saying that what determines if an application sellable is how cryptic it is in its working form. You've probably heard about code obfuscators, that's the purpose of an obfuscator is to make code useless for humans but useful for computers.. There is a justifed reason for compiling C,C++ and Pascal programs, the purpose is to make the code optimal for the machine architecture.. But for interpretive languages the purpose is partly to make the load from the disk quicker, and to make it quicker to execute (possibly), removing the parse pass and and reduction to simple instructions.. But there are applications in open source to transform even Java's class code into Java code.. I once used this to debug someone else's ajav code for them (bet that threw them off.. "why are we selling this stuff as a class if our clients can read it?").

Well java is cross platform compatible because you only need recompile the Java Virtual Machine for each machine (portability ala transitive(w) _ _ relationship). PHP, Python and Perl are also portable, but PHP has to be interpretted everytime its loaded, this is why PHP sites can be slow on access.. There is a little advantage to using a Virtual Machine.. But what the Open Source community is a open source Virtual_Machine(w) _ _, to run threads of PHP, Perl, Python and so forth.. I found something..

(9/27/05 3:09 PM): Reinstalled the operating system yet a third time.. I screwed up an changed permissions on a registry item so that system could not access the "SAM" entry and this disabled XP from booting.. I think I've fixed my machine from being hacked into.. Anyhow, something that really saved my life (well, saved some time), was the use of a Knoppix CD to burn to DVD+R a backup of my account, I could then erase the drive and reinstall, keep this in mind if you are unable to boot your computer (given the hard drive is not corrupted).

On a different note, I converted 1995, 1990, 1991, 1992.. I found a copy of billboard top 100 in anotehr place.. You probably know how Billboard is systematically ripping the copyrighted Top 100 charts from the net, I didn't think it was such hot property..

Also I found this great interview (mp3) with Alan_Alda(w) _ _ (aka "Hawkeye" on Mash) on NPR's Books Podcast..

(9/24/05 10:31 AM): I guess I have a tendency to overreact to podcasts I listen to, I listened to that last one by Eric_Newcomer(w) _ _, I wonder if he is related to Lew_Newby(w) _ _ makes me wonder if their parents were hippie computer geeks (like grass roots 70s computer geeks). I've had second hand bad experiences with IONA (mainly lack of interoperability in CORBA). IONA is probably really starting to realize that there is no way to really survive in a world where Open Source is more accepted, and there are some rudimentary Open Source ORB's like Java ORB, JBoss, Mico etc.., although a complete CORBA solution is one that implements all the stuff necessary for distributed computing, all an orb is is a way to map remote technologies into a local space. The problem with CORBA is its tough to hack, you can't just create a service and expect that incoming users of the service are going to implement clientside API's from the service's object specifications.. Its not a simple as coming into a service, seeing a web interface and patching in cords like on a moog synthesizer, you can't just plug in and integrate, its takes more time and you can't even be really sure if you can depend on that coupling to work tommorow, that's why I emphasize the use of the server/creators objects on both ends of the connection, then to allow the client to interact with the server using a clientside object that could be dumbed down to a web interface if needed. The purpose of using the Virtual Machine, that I describe, is to allow systems at every point to have a consistent operating environment, this is the C in the "ACID Test" that was described in that podcast. Not all web technologies are interoperable, so you need something that is in open source that can intercess for the technologies that don't interoperate. CORBA is close but no cigar, because with CORBA too much is invested in the idea of language independence to the point that every technology has to be wrapped with a CORBA protocol, requiring the IDL of every technology to be compiled or dynamically determined before interaction. This sucks because its not interactive or hackable. To allow standardization, you need something to be hackable and interactive at first..

Anyhow, with CORBA what you end up with is something like a virtual machine, where the machine operates in an ORB between services implementing CORBA interfaces, its the same concept as what I'm talking about with my VM, but the difference is that instead of making it complicated by having a orb setup on each machine, and having every service compiled with CORBA compliant interfaces, and databases to keep track of the Object ID's and such..

Why not just implement a virtual machine, create a computer language for that virtual machine, implement objects as XML with methods described in that language, then allow a simple API to address objects in the VM, interact with them, create new objects and allow interactions between objects on the same VM and other VM's remotely. This way the developer can see the state of the VM, see what objects exist, backup the state, log accesses, and such.. Normally in CORBA you would have logging at every individual object, and each object is a encapsulated system or the object is a deliverable of a system that manages those objects.. The problem with CORBA is once one system goes offline, everyone else has to wait until it comes back up before interaction can continue, so there is a need for a use of queues. This is not so much a problem, but what people like about web stuff is the interactivity and the reliance on a intimate personal system of control, something simple, something that can be managed more easily and is interactive. It should be possible for a developer to create a new object, write business logic and such in that VM without having to know a thing about CORBA or compile IDL's. Also using XML straight is a problem as you need to retain the context of interaction, the developer needs to manage the ID's for each interaction, store them in a database, obtain new ID's for the same object if they lose the old one, etc.. You can't depend on a developer to keep track of that mess, you need something that is more visible and unified, an object that manages all that.. An object running on a VM. Then just database back the VM so that if it goes down, it can be brought up again and the contexts revived. A flip side of this is that the objects can be stored, its a filesystem-less, file format-less environment, and if you need language independence you can make the VM CORBA compliant, but once you have a VM like this, CORBA looks really archaic. Now, to complete the solution, the VM needs to be completely open sourced and it has to be easy to constrain the language that the objects are written in, the language also has to be simple enough to do the job.

Why does this sound like Smalltalk? I'm not asking for smalltalk, but the concept is similar.. Java is too complex, really I would just get rid of the "method search" that is used in Object Oriented languages, it just slows things down and doesn't really help. Objects should be extensible, but simple. Simple enough that even a kid could play with them. See this is why I call objects code + data.. Some think of objects as data accessed by code, or data in code, but if you've hadd assembly programming (what computers really use) you will know that everything is bytes, and what distinguishes data from code is where your program counter is and what your operands are. Objects are Data with Code.

When you seperate Code from Data you have function libraries that create an interpret file formats, or pass messages. It then becomes a problem of syntax, policies, protocols, and stuff that can't be guaranteed to work at every stage of use because the libraries of code that work on the data may not agree on how to deal with that data. See data is useful inasmuch as the semantics about the data retain consistency, once the semantics decouple, or fail to overlap, you have problems working with the data. The only way to maintain that the data is consistent is to keep the code that creates and uses the data with the data. If you really need libraries of functions for the sake of efficiency, why not type-class the object(s) and use one object of the same class to operate on the data of a number of objects without the methods included (like you could send one object to a client, then just say "ditto" for every object of the same type. Anyhow, I have to go.. Think about it.. I'm planning to put my computerese stuff in a seperate blog just to keep my musical interests seperated, but maybe someday they will be all the same thing and the topics will become colored circles with a PAD++ type interface (yeah I'm one of Ben Bederson's students).

(9/23/05 6:09 AM): It's 6:09, I'm tired, I couldn't get sleep, I have to go for some blood tests at 8, to a funeral at 11, I listened to a podcast about Katrina victims and about a black man melting and animals being left behind, and I'watching as Rita hits the coast of Texas where much of my relatives live, and all I can think about is my idea for true interplatform Objects (pdf) (this same technology can be adapted to deal with SOAP(w) _ _ type stuff as well, juts its a lot to do to get objects, but its the ONLY WAY THAT THIS CAN WORK, AND YOU WILL NEVER SEE IT HAPPEN).

After listening to this podcast show from IT-Conversations (call me an escapist), some people escape into music, art, etc.. I escape into ideas.. I was listening to this podcast and note they say "SOAP(w) _ _ is not object oriented". Haleluuuuujah!! Someones noticed.. XML isn't Object Oriented.. Microsoft and the others like IONA (which sucks now because they FUQT CORBA, probably to answer to the web hype)..

Note the most popular computer language in the world is HTML, and HTML is not a computer language (if you can't make a calculator in HTML, its not a language, you can with javascript, but javascript is just barely a language, and javascript has nothing to do with Java, it was created by Netscape and the name was borrowed to attract interest).. There is a great need for what I've proposed, which is to create a virtual machine on every system, implement objects as XML with methods (code with data, which is what, fundamentally, objects are), then limit the scope of the operations that the methods in the objects use so that its impossible to implement worms and viruses.. For instance, store a "public-key encrypted CRC + Signature" of the object in with the object on the creators end, then when its passed to the receiver, the receiver can validate the object then execute it..

The object may message back but in a way that the creator deemed necessary, this way people on either end don't have to implement a special (non-standardized, or hacked) messaging protocol per intercompany relationship.. I know lockin-meisters like IONA would just love for people to be loosely/tightly coupled like this.. Yes, XML messaging is tight coupling because the code that passes messages has to agree on both ends of the transaction.

I do believe in the use of monitors, or a object with an interface that manages the complexity of interactions of a number of systems transparently to the users of the complex interactions..

The problem is that Database developers, like Oracle, they depend on client lockin, they want people to be tightly coupled to their products, and the best way to do this is to eliminate the chance of loosely coupled object oriented communications (objects are good, according to them, if the objects are within their transaction model, in their software, if the transaction model has to be open sourced to allow for loose coupling, then they will go the way of XML to avoid the possibility of exposing that you really don't need them to do this, which is taboo for them)..

SOAP is not, and CORBA is not really object oriented either.. CORBA(w) _ _ is just glorified RPC(w) _ _, where objects sit on the remote systems and are interacted with using an ORB (Object Request Broker) on the local machine.

See in CORBA, you request objects, then you get an ID on your local machine that refers to an object on a remote machine.. You can issue method calls on the remote object to perform actions on the remote machine.. You can even have objects on your end interact with objects on their end.. Behind the scenes, what you have really is something like XML messaging, but its hidden from you.. CORBA is really a way to wrap legacy technologies to look like objects.. I liken it to nailing objects to the floor and requiring them to read each other's body language, than really having them interact and move about.. The concept of an Agent is lost with CORBA, because the objects can't really relocate..

What I'm proposing is, allow for an agent architecture, control the virtual machine sandbox so that virus, worms and trojans are impossible (examples: XUL, Javascript, Java), and then determine the protocols and the methods of controlling transactions..

It would still be message passing, but it would require the methods to be open sourced (so you know the protocol and what it does and how it translates, and you no the complete set of valid messages that cna be passed and you can put a name on the calls.. Whereas with messaging passing or straight RPC (which is message passing, and what CORBA is underneath) you have to know the protocol, its going back to messaging protocols like TCP/IP(w) _ _, SMTP(w) _ _, HTTP(w) _ _, this is "De-evolution" (are we not men?), Devolution is cool culturally, but with tech is ugly as hell.

When your interactions get to be super low-level gibberish, that's when to get worried, that is the domain of vendor-lockin, XML(w) _ _ may look kind, on the surface, to humans ---- but, ITS A WOLF IN SHEEPS CLOTHING because it requires agreement on either ends of a transaction and it allows for disagreement too, whereas with objects the protocol is managed with method calls ..... distinct method calls .... that lay out the details of the protocol, then its up to the objects author to determine what those method calls mean.

You will find "no-go" barriers everywhere to the acceptance of objects because objects make technologies pluggable and expose the vendor-lock-ended-ness that is required by the more screwy companies to survive. The excuse to use XML is a return to the age of the dinosaurs, when legacy systems and wizard coders ruled the earth. "yo being lied to by the foos", XML just makes protocols hackable, which is okay but it gets half-way there.. CORBA is closer but no cigar.

Fact of the matter is you will never see anything like I've talked about until I make it myself, because what I'm talking about is creating true object oriented protocols that are open sourced and cleanly defined and easily extensible, impossible to leverage commercially and impossible exploit maliciously.

When guys at IONA say "we need to turn back the clock, back to asynchronous transactions" they are saying "lets return to batch processing systems and times of glory when systems on either end of a transaction required turnkey systems to allow interaction", this is worse than vendor lockin, but its sugar coated to make you go "gee that's sounds so much better wally".

I would a say a lot of the anxiety with this has not to do with the virii,worms,trojans but with the potential that this could make transactions completely open source an impossible to leverage (tightly couple)..

I doubt, I seriously doubt, IONA could care less about loosley coupling anything since their design of CORBA ORB's recently has been full of vendor lockin (IONA ORB's, when I was working with CORBA, I was told that their orbs were incompatible with the ORB standards set out by the OMG, I can only imagine that now they playing catch up with the open source community realizing that there are ORB's in open source that could cut them off at the knees)..

Notice that ITC's site doesn't allow for comments (neither does mine, well it does now.. see top), they want to sell books, they make money by giving these people a medium to voice their views, and you can bet they are getting paid.. Its nothing more than a tech evangelist magazine in the form of a podcast, but its presented like its mean to inform and educate, take it with a grain of salt..

The reason why a lot of journalists hate blogs, like mine, is that its in competition with how they make their living, blogs will replace magazines, that's a fact, that is why many magazine writers and journalists are becoming bloggers, its the only way they can win back the love they had when they were respected journalists of certain magazines.. Book writers also take advantage of podcasts because it gives them a voice.. Podcasts are good and bad for the industry, but mostly good.. The stuff that wouldn't get printed or spoken, now does.. Its not much for posterity, but "whoop there it is"..

(9/20/05 6:39 PM): Listen(mp3) to this talk given by Geoffrey Moore about Open Source in modern business..

These conversations on ITConversations are fun to listen to, especially due to how much of the guts of the software business is being revealed by open source.

(9/20/05 6:19 PM): While looking for security packs from windows I recall seeing something that said Microsoft would not support Windows XP after September 2006..

Some would say Microsoft is going to stop providing security packs to fix security holes in Windows and that this is a service and the service will stop after 2006.. What do you want to bet they won't even let people purchase support for Windows XP security patches.. Furthermore the release of vista is more to encourage a purchase of new software and hardware.. With the gas prices and all the other financial concerns, you think people will upgrade Bill? You think Microsoft is all that important? I personally would much rather switch to linux or the new Mac OSX to be released on Intel than repurchase into this losing proposition..

(9/20/05 6:04 PM): What I really wanted to add to my blog today was that since I'm reinstalling all this stuff on my windows machine, I'm getting an idea what others would have to go through, and even thinking about the possibility of a tutorial about reinstalling windows.. Anyhow, that may not happen.. But I did find a set of video codecs (aka Video COder/DECoder) that that you might want to install, they can be found here (I found this codec pack by simply going to Google, and doing a search for "codec pack", it was the first on the list.. Google ranks results, it seems, by popularity, I have theories about how it determines popularity, I think its by the number of unique hosts that link to the site, and some may be determined by what google helpbar for IE and Firefox passes back to it; but in any case it works.. )..

I found that after installing this codec(w) _ _ pack that most mpg,wmv,avi videos that I could not see before I can see now..

(9/20/05 5:49 PM): Well I've completely reinstalled my windows xp on my machine.. It looks like the hacker may have gotten back in again, note I have a static IP address, so it would be easy enough just for the hacker to crack my machine again and install a rootkit.. Though I'm notfinding a list of anonymous programs trying to gain access from Zonealarm.. Everytime I start windows my first mode of business is to kill a server that opens on port 1900, and one on 1025.. The other processes I disable are the ones that have ports opened up above 1024 in a consecutive manner.. It seems that things just work better after I've disabled these processes, and doesn't affect my use of the machine.. It would be nice to be able to figure out what these are, if they are appropriate, but Windows really doesn't give you much clues nor does it require very many clues of the coders that make the applications. So nameless applications that use "svchost.exe" to open a process on the net, get a random response from me based on my whims, other processes that are named and reference a valid location in my system path, get an expected response.. It would be nice if Windows at least would tell you what application was using svchost.exe to open a process, but you can't find that out.. Also its not possible to tell zonealarm to systematically remove processes like those who open ports 1900 and 1025.. But with the recent changes, I expect they are getting wiser about this.. Really firewalls need to provide lisp like languages that allow users to make up their own rules for how to deal with a process..

I had heard that a friend of my Geri Rottmayer passed away.. Thought I would just mention her here, so that those who know me would know I had heard.. She is about my father's age, and had only gotten ill within the last two or three years.. She was awfully chipper when she wasn't ill and was always wondering how I was doing.. I know everyone I know who knew her will miss her, but I saw her family the other day, on sunday and they seemed to take it well, enjoying life and their children.. I doubt anyone I know that knew her would be here reading this, but I felt stupid talking about this stupid rootkit and not saying something about it.

(9/14/05 2:15 AM): Something worth mentioning: if you want a really good speech synthesizer or you need a program that can provide backup vocals without warm bodies, there are two programs you can use: Festival_Speech_Synthesis_System(w) _ _ and Flinger (Festival Singer), Flinger is the program I used to make my "Old Man River" audio clip (BTW, I purchased the orchestral version of Ol' Man River for about 20 dollars so I don't expect they will sue me for this, I can also sing it better than most, but that's something else altogether). There is some other demos here of what it is capable of.

(9/13/05 10:07 PM): It should be the law to consider worms and virii under teh same punishment as mass execution, especially if the worms interfere with medical records systems.. Anyhow, C|Net made news that there was a big bust on a bunch of Virus and Worm designers.. Next up, death penalty for rootkit designers. No need to be so harsh Kiernan, okay, Life imprisonment and hard labor.. Still pretty harsh.. Hey what do you expect, you cause so many people's lives to be like a living hell.. This is not a crime that affects a few people, it affects everyone, there should be penalties on this stuff to match.. And you just don't accidently write these things, if it can be proven that there is a deliberate motivation to cause harm, these people should be giving harsh penalties to show the others, this is not something you get away with.. BEsides, these guys are easier to contain in jails, they don't kill people.. It might be possible to rehabilitate them, but who can trust them?

Thinking about this again, I replied on C|net with this.. And my mind had changed..

These people could be of muslim descent, and are doing it because they hate americans. Note that the Japanese soldiers covered american POW's during WWII with airplane fuel and set them alight to prove to their own people how evil Americans were by claiming that our airfighters dropped the bombs on them (read "Ghost Soldiers", of course Americans who believe in conspiracy would say our own government told us that to believe that the japanese were awful, at least we are given the opportunity to have a difference of opinion).. The same emotional tactics are used by the North Koreans to make their own government look tame by comparison to the evil of the world. The fear with all these evil dictators and world views is that they make everyone else look evil to control public opinion. Its possible these kids were doing this because everyone looks evil to them, and by comparison they look better than us.. They may feel like they are doing some kind of justice to those of their own. I don't know if they were doing this to get jobs.. They would have to be of a different mind.. It could also be for poverty.. But any excuse we give them, they will take to avoid the penalties that come with the crime. Its crime in any case. In some cases, like a particular American hacker (Kevin_Mitnick(w) _ _) and some car theifs, these criminals are addicted to the thrill of the act, but want to stop, and want people there who can stop them. Those are the kind that share their knowledge because they figure the more safeguards, the less they are tempted to commit the act again. I don't know if they even consider the penalties.. They don't know how much trouble they are in until they are serving time, and I would believe that would be enough to teach them that they aren't invcible (until you get old enough you realize your body is not as young as it used to be and things that mattered when you were a kid look stupid when you get older).. Notice that it isn't usually a 38 year old man who makes these things.. ITs someone who is young and feels they are invincible, on the edge of innocence.. They feel if they are in trouble their Father will come and bail them out.. When Valve caught the hackers who stole their source code and released it on the Internet, the person who was single-handedly responsible for the crime was faced with guns and realized the error of his ways, they said he said "I'm really not a bad person." Obviously very scared and suprised.. But to these kids its a game.. Its just like that movie WarGames.. And the funny thing is WarGames kinda encouraged kids to become hackers, because the movie made it look like fun.. I myself can even remember buying a modem for my Commodore 64 because I thought I could break into a computer. Its possible thes kids also were bored and were looking for something to do.. Computers are cheap and they only require energy.. When you are bored and haven't got an active Internet connection, there is few things you can do, like code software, paint and make music. Its just a small change of perspective on what is "productive" to turn a artist into a criminal.

(9/13/05 2:55 PM): This must be new, someone made an album called "Women at Work (r)" on rhapsody which is just a bunch of cover tunes of Men_At_Work(w) _ _(r) songs. I hate it when people get the songs wrong, for instance on "It's a mistake", they sing the wrong notes. Maybe they did this intentionally.. Also, I made another 80s playlist (r), a selection taken from this site.

(9/13/05 1:31 PM): I don't know what it is but wikipedia is getting exponentially slower..

(9/13/05 12:23 PM): I was thinking Electric_Dreams(w) _ _(r) from the Human_League(w) _ _(r) was done with Jeff_Lynne(w) _ _(r) of ELO(w) _ _(r), but its in fact Giorgio_Moroder(w) _ _(r), the same guy who did the soundtrack to Midnight_Express(w) _ _(r) and might have collaborated with David_Bowie(w) _ _(r) on the song "Cat People", but Giorgio did do the soundtrack to Cat_People(w) _ _(r).

(9/13/05 11:53 AM): Windows sucks because when you go to sort your files by time it always places the newest directory on the inside of the list, not on the outside, its okay to do with with files or directories but not both, its an exclusive-or (XOR) kinda thing, or is this directory thing also patented (its an in-joke, someone patented the application of XOR to graphics, which is how on a black&white mac graphics are discerned is by XORing the bitmaps of the active and inactive graphics)..

(9/13/05 3:25 AM): Roger_McGuinn(w) _ _ (r) uses Audacity(w) _ _, and rats on RIAA(w) _ _ and the big wigs about the reality of the record companies and why they suck, and shows off his 7 string guitar.. found this out through the TWIT Vlog (drag the on FireANT) (a video of Dvorak,_John_C.(w) _ _ and Roger and others at the Mac Store, I guess somewhere near LA, I guess). Here is the video (v) (600 Megs), I think this is the right link. It takes a while to download because its like an hour long.. Lots of really cool info, watch it, they tell crap that you can't do on TV or radio.. There was mentioned a domain sale from yahoo. They strings-attached? Its a loss-leader, they claim.. Asteroids Fossil Watch (executive toys) was mentioned.

(9/12/05 4:43 PM): This group deserves a big record contract, Flowerbed (r), I happened upon them accidentally.. I would compare them to Crosby,_Stills_and_Nash(w) _ _(r) (for acapella style, chording); Yes(w) _ _(r) (for acapella style); XTC(w) _ _(r) (for wording/rhythm) and Level_42(w) _ _(r) (for chording) .

(9/12/05 12:30 PM): Rootkit denied again.. Eventually I will have to either reinstall my OS or get a new computer, but Zonealarm was successful again today at disallowing the rootkit from controlling my machine.. With the new Zonealarm Pro you can set it up such that anytime one program issues a call to open another program, you can determine if the program can, and if its a weird named program you can disallow it access, then find the name of the program in your firewall list, and set it to kill the process everytime it appears.. Today it happened again.. And usually how it comes about is I am opening firefox, and Zonealarm ask's me something like "Program []Ux[][][] is trying to access the internet via firefox, should I allow this?", and after is disallow it, my resources claim I haven't the proper access level to open firefox.. I then go to zonealarm, find the process that the requester was asking about, and set phaser to kill. Then the GUI mysteriousl refreshes and I can open firefox again.. Conincedence? I think not.. This is the second time this has happened.. I think there is an inside process that keeps generating these attempts, but it hardly ever gets out, and when it does I just kill it with zonealarm.. Zonealarm's OS Firewall is the very thing a hardware firewall won't get you. Now if they only had a way of killing processes that startup and open a range of ports, its how the rootkit startsup.

(9/11/05 1:39 AM): This video will explain to you (v), Why FEMA's director got Fired, and Bush got blamed for this catastrophe.. (Get FireAnt, the new version is better than the last)

(9/10/05 4:00 AM): Josh told me that ReBirth(w) _ _ is reborn as a freeware package now (I guess open source).. You can obtain a Torrent(w) _ _ of the ISO Image here.

(9/9/05 2:04 PM): I've wondered about the art of administering PC's, this is TCPView's author's 'blog err, I mean.. Mark Russinovich. Administration of Windows machines is like hacking a closed source computer, because it is, you don't have the advantage of really knowing enough about the Windows machine like you do with a Linux machine, so you can't really ever know too much with Windows.. But Linux gives you access to things that the system designers do, and if you are capable of dealing with that, you can eliminate a lot of security holes.. That is why Linux computers are better off than Windows.. MacOS X is a variant of some UNIX, I think BSD.. So it can adopt some of the wisdom about network security from the UNIX/Linux/GNU community and adopt the toolsets.

(9/9/05 1:41 AM): I listen to Scritti_Politi(w) _ _(r)'s "Boom There She Was", I was 18 when this song came out.. And how it makes me feel old is that there are kids who are 17 now that were born when that song came out.. And by 1988 the 80s were pretty much over (the 90s actually started in 1988, because digital synthesizer(w) _ _s and sampler(w) _ _s had completely taken over the industry, I can remember seeing analog {tube based} synths being sold for under 500 dollars in 1986, I mean the kind that techno groups pay a lot for now..). Also 1988 was about 5 years after the CD(w) _ _ playback technology had hit the consumer market (CD-R(w) _ _ Recording was fictionalized in the movie "Far From Home" with Drew_Barrymore(w) _ _, it wasn't until a decade later that the option became real).. My brother Gav, had purchased a CD play for 500 dollars that was about the size of a clock radio, not much really changed until the invention of mp3 technology which appeared only a decade ago (I really feel old) . But it was on his CD player that I heard the Beatles for the first time, when I was 14, and this was 18 years after the Beatles(w) _ _ released the album I listened to.. It was Revolver, and had the famous song Taxman(w) _ _ 1966, 4 years before I was born). That's gotta make Yuppie(w) _ _'s feel real old now. In 1987, I had a Digital Analog synthesizer, a midi connector to my Amiga_1000(w) _ _, Deluxe_Music_Construction_Set(w) _ _ (my first MIDI software), and a Reel-to-Reel(w) _ _ deck because it was not cost effective to record to 16-bit digital, that didn't come until about 1985.. That's why you hear a siginificant change in sound quality with Peter_Gabriel(w) _ _'s "So" album, it was one of the first albums to be recorded, mixed and mastered in 16-bit digital audio, in fact I think he used 24-bit..

Kurzweil K-250 was what Paul_Shaffer(w) _ _ (r) (that (r) is Billy_Crystal(w) _ _ (r) doing his best Sammy_Davis,_Jr.(w) _ _ (r) impersonation) used on David Lettermans show, during the mid-80s, it is the keyboard Paul used to get all the sound effects like David's pencil throwing gimmick (here are some modern Kurzweil Synth demos, sorry but my $30 dollar Soundblaster(w) _ _ Live! can kick it's butt).. Anyhow if you want a good piano module, you might do well to get a Kurzweil(w) _ _.. It's also the keyboard that Stevie_Wonder(w) _ _ (r) used in most of his 80s albums (it's no wonder, he also used Ray_Kurzweil(w) _ _'s Reading_Machine(w) _ _, confirmed on a PBS(w) _ _ news program)

There is a song from The_Go-Go's(w) _ _(r), "Cool Jerk" from "Greatest Hits" Album (1990), where Belinda_Carlisle(w) _ _(r) mentions "Give me some Bass and some A8's" (the 1990(w) _ _ album, not anything previous).. I think the keyboard Belinda was referring to was a Roland A-80, which _argh_ is a midi keyboard controlled (it's used to controll a midi module setup, its has no sounds, but I'm sure she probably had some of these or some of these hooked up to that A-80.. The purpose of Midiboard(w) _ _ (midi(w) _ _ keyboards) was to allow the keyboardist to access performance parameters in the keyboard - something that was lost between the transition from knobby analogs (r) to pristine digital synths..

Also in a song from the Traveling_Wilburys(w) _ _, Charlie T. Junior (Tom_Petty(w) _ _'s (r) cutesy stage name) mentions the Yamaha_DX7(w) _ _ (responsible for much of the 80s sound) in the song "Cool Dry Place" (if Roy_Orbison(w) _ _ (r) hadn't passed away this Wilbury thing could have really been something, still the band was comprised of some really cool musicians including Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, Jeff_Lynne(w) _ _ (r), George_Harrison(w) _ _ (v), and Bob_Dylan(w) _ _ (r)).

(9/8/05 2:44 PM): I added to my header information about the best application to use for remote access to your computer, if you want to avoid paying for "gotomypc(w) _ _.com", the best solution is to use TightVNC or some variant of VNC. VNC(w) _ _ was developed by AT&T, and is most likely what "gotomypc" is anyhow (I think AT&T(w) _ _ sells licenses to use the source in commercial applications, but the point is its open_source(w) _ _ anyhow)..

People have created VNC clients for PalmPC's, PalmPilots, For Web Browsers, for Java, etc.. IT has password protected access, you can even tunnel it through a SSH(w) _ _ connection (if you are really paranoid). I've used it in the past to install software on Linux machines.. It runs on Windows and I believe Mac's.. I've been using it since I was in college (I graduated in 1998(w) _ _). Me and Nate had a friend, Sergio, who would use it to administrate tens of unix machines installed in schools. Sergio was the guy who showed me that one could even control an SGI workstation from a Web Browser on a PC across campus (its a lot of fun!!).

(9/6/05 3:40 PM):

EULA(w) _ _ is extortion _

(9/6/05 7:34 PM): I realized something interesting with the most recent release of Rhapsody, you know how for non subscribers it offers 25 songs each month? If you play a song and stop it before the very last of the song, it rewards you by not counting this toward your allowance.. Try it.. I think it could be a bug, but more likely they are rewarding people fighting the short attention span.

(9/6/05 6:42 PM): I've heard that America's Second Harvest is the most efficient charity fund for disaster relief in the country, and are accepting money for Katrina. About less than 1% of the money actually goes to the charity's organization itself (Forbes Magazine, citation unconfirmed).

(9/6/05 2:49 PM): This is an interesting audio clip (realmedia audio) about what celebrities are doing to aid Hurricane_Katrina(w) _ _ victims, Especially Jerry_Lewis(w) _ _' MDA Show. I kinda expected Harry_Connick_Jr(w) _ _. To do something about this, its his hometown (methinks).

I actually think its cool what Kayne_West(w) _ _ did on that, its my thoughts exactly, I think we whiteys have a hard time identifying with black people and may even lessen them as humans in the media, I'm not sure I ever heard anything about the distinction he made since I've never seen much in the way of white people on the TV in the coverage of this disaster, except in "Bay St. Louis" and "Biloxi". New Orleans is majorly black and the more touristy parts of New Orleans as I recall seemed to be white-centric, what you are seeing is a terrible catastrophy centered around a town which previous to the catastrophe had many other issues. Its a real test for us to see if we can get past the racial prejudism aspect to see through to the human experience of this catastrophe. Its a learning experience. What I really liked about what Kayne West did, to the point, is courageously speaking his mind about an unspoken component that wouldn't on a national network that might (and did) edit out this comment being taboo and not in good taste. Note that Kayne, didn't use any vulgarities.. I thank him for that, I hate vulgarities when heard in comedy, rap, etc.. IT doesn't make the point any stronger, it just ruins the topic.. It's a unecessary distraction (while I'm cringing due to the spoken vulgarity, I'm losing the point of the message, the tone and inflection that is used has more to do with making a point strong than using vulgarities.. The Word Nerds podcast mentioned the use of silence to draw attention (mp3) <=-- that is more effective than using vulgarity.. ).

(9/5/05 2:40 AM): I'm getting to bed, converting to CD the first of 15 disks from the audio book, Domminick Dunne's "Justice" (url + audio clip).. While I'm not read of Vanity Fair or into the whose who of social aristocracy, or the high and lows of the famous, he is. I had read a little about Truman_Capote(w) _ _, just briefly, because the director of the movie about Truman Capote did the movie "The Cruise", which I really liked.. Anyhow, the story about Capote is he was a great writer, but wrote about people he knew while they were popular and this ruined relationships with them and him.. I had read somewhere on the net that Dominick knew Truman Capote, and that Truman had a party and didn't invite Dominick, which was said to crush Dominick, to make him feel like a nobody. This is questionable since Dominick says he wasn't anyone at the beginning of his book, I guess until he got the job with Vanity_Fair_magazine(w) _ _.. Like Truman Capote, Dominick befriends those he writes about, and eventually ends up as a foe.. It probably is sourced from the injustice he experienced with his daughters death "Dominique_Dunne(w) _ _".

By large I tend to hate the media stuffed at the mesa public library (Los Alamos Public Library) as the rhetoric tends to have a heavy liberal/environmentalist bend to it, and most often its wrong or insubstantial (like that "Outfoxed" DVD).. Also for some reason a good bit of the libraries videos and audio books center around war and atomic bombs, have you noticed that? I think the protestors of the lab have taken residence, but they are having little effect just annoying people.. Anyhow, back to Dominique Dunne, you may have realized by now she was the sister of "Carrie_Ann(w) _ _" in Poltergeist(w) _ _, she was strangled (in real life) by her new boyfriend John_Sweeny(w) _ _ and Domminick Dunne (her father) talks about the affair in his book, as well as a number of others.. This is a huge book, 15 cd's long.. But so far it sounds pretty interesting.. (update, I'm on Disk 4 of the 15 disk set, its interesting stuff, but I've read a lot on the net its largely fictional, but that's entertainment, how many hollywood movies can you point at that 100% true?)

Another thing I got at the library is a book on "Robots(w) _ _", for a week, and about a 5th of the book is devoted to Robotic_Surgery(w) _ _ (yes really!!).. The book is "Robots - from science fiction to technological revolution" by Daniel_Ichbiah(w) _ _, ISBN 0-8109-5906-2 .. I know Nate would love this book, it even has a section about making robots with lego kits and interviews one of the best inventors that uses legos in the design of robots. I'm thinking about making a robot myself, but I'm not interested the AI aspect.. I've had a long interest is virtual and extended reality.. There are just certain things that don't ever seem to get developed or never catch on and I would like to make really cheap methods of experiencing alternate realities using robots and stereo videography.. I don't know if its a problem with the market or a huge mass conspiracy but the technologies that seem to always get developed are the ones that have a commercial application, or can be exploited commercially.. Its a long standing belief of mine that science and technology is orthogonal(w) _ _ to capitalism, though capitalism allowed us to get this far, the capitalists are against anything that may be of a financial risk, thus great ideas that might benefit everyone regardless of income level tend not to be the technologies that make money, and thus no never developed, its really sad..

(9/5/05 1:17 AM): Well I reinstalled Battlefield_2(w) _ _, let's see how long this lasts.. I determined that playing it after 12:00 is pretty useless. I was playing "Tactical Gamer BF #1", I think was permanently kicked.. Since its an unranked server I may just start another ID to keep from losing complete access (this is not illegal, just you start back from square one, but hey I will have multiple weapon unlocks!!, just not at the same time..). But then again, "Tactical Gamer" doesn't let you use unlocks..

I've also determined on 64 player levels I don't work very well as commander, I'm much better managing 32 player levels..

(9/4/05 8:43 AM): Contemplating sharing our home, as we have space available for at least a couple of people.. There is a website I found out about on FOX called "Share your home dot org" where people can signup to house victims of the New Orleans Flood/Huricane. I'm sure most people will get access to these through google, but if you weren't looking for such information, here it is: www.shareyourhome.org .

(9/3/05 5:03 AM): I'm dead, I created this playlist (warning heavy stuff inside, turn it up full blast and you may lose your hearing and I'm not going to claim responsibility), I'm so tired I have a hard time focusing.. I wish I could put this song (v) in the mix too, but Rhapsody doesn't even know it exists..

(9/2/05 8:12 PM): I enjoyed my times at New Orleans, but as I recall a good friend of mine say, "It's a nice place but who would want to live here.. " My feelings about this incident is that things could have been done, and its a tragedy that people had to die in this natural disaster. But while there is still people saying New Orleans will be rebuilt, my gut feeling is that it won't be the same. I personally wouldn't have it rebuilt, but that's me.. New Orleans was a city with a lot of quiet hostility and a history of crime that was only within the last decade built up to be attractive, but those visiting the city know the drill on the crime there "If anyone asks to shine your shoes, don't stop or bend over". Its like hailing a taxi cab in Mexico City.. But over the last decade it was improving, I remember in 2000 when I was there that it had really imporved, it was a place I would return to.. But after this disaster, I'm not sure I would be interested.. I think if I was living there, I would rather the government just rebuild a city somewhere else, call that New Orleans, and continue on.. But places are important to other people, to know stuff like "sachmo was here on this spot". How about the people, wouldn't it be better to meet the people who knew him? That light is fading..

(9/1/05 4:06 AM): I was watching John Carmack's keynote at QuakCon4, downloaded it off filerush, interestingly its in NSV format, you need winamp to play the video.. Anyhow, John and I would probably disagree on the quality of fun issue versus playability on Quake/Doom games, I personally had more fun with Doom1 and Quake1 than I think I had with any game after, simply because there was so much things that were new, and that people could do.. Like use a grappling hook, or play the anti-gravity level.. I think Carmack is so interested in his personal endeavours that its gone away from making fun games and gone toward making good looking games, which is really tragic.. Oh well, this is what the money making industry does to fun.. Another thing that was a lot of fun with the original Quake was that you could replace the sound effects on every server, such that you could say have Beavis&Butthead effects.. Of course back then the mainstream media didn't care a lick about things like this, these days with the Internet copyright infringements and the potential for viruses, it makes things less and less and less fun.. Of courses that is the purpose of mainstream media, to make stuff mediocre so that the entire media market has a greater chance of selling something with comparable "fun" value.. Maybe I'm just getting older, but there was something fun about Quake that I serriously doubt John has the braincells to grapple onto.. BTW, John is 4 months younger than I so screw seniority..

 .